Baker's Dozen
by emcey squared
Summary: A collection of 13 stories exploring the hidden depths of 13 FFVIII characters: Selphie, Squall, Seifer, Zell, Quistis, Irvine, Rinoa, Edea, Cid, Ellone, Fujin, Raijin, and Laguna. Pairings include Seifer/Squall, Quistis/FemOC, and Selphie/Irvine.
1. Selphie

Disclaimer - _FFVIII _is not mine and I do not claim ownership of it. I do not make money off it either.

_**Baker's Dozen**_ - A collection of thirteen stories exploring the hidden depths of thirteen _FFVIII _characters: Selphie, Squall, Seifer, Zell, Quistis, Irvine, Rinoa, Edea, Cid, Ellone, Fujin, Raijin, and Laguna. The stories won't necessarily be posted in that order, but eventually each character will get a story.

Pairings - Rinoa/Squall, pre-Seifer/Squall

Teaser - Selphie thinks about a few strange facts about her friends... the things they thought were hidden from curious eyes.

_**A Little Bit Strange**_

Everyone tended to underestimate Selphie's observational skills, which was just fine with her. She liked that people would unintentionally dismiss her as being the hyperactive crazy one who was obsessed with explosions. Not that there was anything wrong with a nice explosion every now and then.

But the others were so wrapped up in themselves that it was nice to be able to step back and see the things they overlooked.

There were a lot of little things that were odd about their group and it was those things that were a little bit strange that Selphie kept her eyes open for. Those were the things that interested her the most.

The most notable thing about their group was that everyone was in love with Squall. Quistis could say that she loved him like he were her little brother and Zell could say that Squall was his best friend and Irvine could pretend it was just him desperately wanting Squall's respect, but Selphie... Selphie knew that they were all in love with him. Even she was in love with him.

He was pretty, after all, in such a manner that if women weren't so busy crushing on him they'd hate that he was more beautiful than them. Squall also had those brooding qualities that seemed to inspire women to want to help make everything better by kissing away his problems. He was strong and capable, but with a rarely visible side that was completely, utterly vulnerable that, when it showed, resisting the urge to track him down and comfort him was nearly impossible.

It wasn't really fair that Rinoa got to have him, at least in Selphie's opinion. She wasn't deep enough, not that she was the shallow little girl Selphie had first met in Timber. Not anymore. But Rinoa didn't understand what it meant to be a soldier. She didn't understand why Squall's rare smiles were more precious than anything else in the world. She didn't understand that Squall felt everything so much more deeply than anyone else and that was why he buried himself beneath the facade of ice. She didn't understand why there was such a profound connection between Squall and Seifer despite everything that happened during the war.

Rinoa... just couldn't understand any of it. Selphie knew that everything Rinoa didn't comprehend about Squall would drive her away one day. The evidence was in the way Rinoa's smiles became less bright as the weeks passed and her eyes grew sadder as she watched Squall. Squall was simply too much for the Galbadian girl and it would break his heart when he finally realized it.

Selphie also knew that it would be Seifer who'd mend that broken heart of Squall's because Seifer... Seifer understood Squall better than he understood himself.

Another weird thing was how they reacted to Matron.

Edea Kramer had been their mother once. She'd loved them and raised them, promising them that they'd be a family forever. Then she'd abandoned them. Most were adopted and Edea let them slip through her fingers with regretful smiles and promises that they were going to better homes than she could provide.

Selphie knew for certain that she'd been a trophy child for a rich couple and that letting her attend Trabia Garden was the only thing they'd ever done for her that was really, truly for her. Irvine never talked about the family that adopted him. He'd change the subject, and not always subtly, in order to avoid having to say anything about them. The depth of his avoidance scared Selphie; she feared the things he might have been put through. Quistis spoke occassionally about the Trepe family. They were a kind, elderly couple who died in a car crash in Dollet. Zell's adoptive father had also been killed shortly after his adoption, but his mother was a kind woman who had taken all of his orphan siblings under her wing, Squall and Seifer in particular because they seemed to need a mother's love the most. After all, they were two who were simply abandoned at Garden without being given a family at all.

None of them resented Matron for her choices. However, Edea Kramer was no longer their mother. She could no longer guilt them into apologizing when they were wrong by looking at them in disappointment. Her hugs were no longer enough to make their sadness go away. Her smiles were not what they strove to earn for good deeds.

Matron did not seem to realize any of this and no one spoke of it to her. They all did still care for her and did not want to hurt her. They all felt they owed her that much, though if there was any sort of agreement regarding Matron, it was left unspoken.

Then there was the awkwardness with Laguna.

Selphie idolized Sir Laguna for living a life that he'd enjoyed so much.

Squall resented Laguna for never being there, though he was learning to forgive him.

Ellone still saw Laguna through a child's eyes - he could do no wrong where she was concerned - despite being the eldest of them all.

Irvine liked Laguna well enough, but distanced himself from the man on Squall's account.

Seifer enjoyed messing with Laguna, partly because Seifer messed with everyone and partly because Laguna was just too easy a target.

Zell considered Laguna to be a kindred spirit.

Quistis felt that Laguna was too childish in most things, but surprisingly mature in politics. She didn't seem to care much for him regardless.

Bringing up Laguna Loire amongst their group was always more than a little awkward, so his name drifted into the realm of borderline taboo subjects.

There was one thing, however, that Selphie was fairly certain only she had really noticed.

It had to be the strangest thing of them all.

Rinoa and Squall were dating, yet they'd almost been siblings. Laguna had once loved Rinoa's mother. In another life, he might have been Rinoa father instead of Caraway and Julia could have been Squall's mother instead of Raine. It hadn't worked out that way - they most definitely weren't even half-siblings - but it almost had.

Selphie got creeped out when she thought about it too hard. She was just glad that Rinoa wouldn't be sticking around too much longer.

A/N - While I am aware that, genetically, if Laguna and Julia had kids they would not physically be Squall and Rinoa. However, I'm having Selphie assume that the essence that makes up a person - let's call it a soul - will remain the same regardless. I'm sure most people recognized this on their own without me needing to lay it out for them but, having received criticism concerning my understanding of genetics (probably based on the fact that I'm not a Squinoa fan and didn't bother to give warning... which I've also fixed so as not to have to deal with people incapable of hitting the back button; all I can say is that at least this particular Squinoa fan was fairly polite), I wanted to clarify for anyone who might not have quite gotten the point of Selphie's final musing there.


	2. Rinoa

Disclaimer - I don't own _FFVIII_, which is very sad indeed.

Teaser - The saying went that if you loved someone, you had to let them go. If they loved you in return then they would return to you as surely as the sun returned to the sky each day. It was time for Rinoa to let go.

A/N - I think this is the first time I've managed to write Rinoa sympathetically without prompting from Kit. I'm a little proud of myself since I don't really like Rinoa all that much. :)

Pairing - Rinoa/Squall

_**Goodbye**_

When you love someone, you either love them selfishly or selflessly. Rinoa hadn't understood that until she met Squall.

Squall was fierce and unyielding in battle. He cared for people in the same way. Outwardly Squall was always calm, but inwardly he was pure passion. At first, Rinoa had been confused by him. Later, she was swept away by him. All that passion... she'd desperately wanted to bask in it and claim it as her own.

Eventually, she even fell in love with him. She had even believed he loved her the same way. After all, he promised to protect her even if the whole world wanted her dead. It was hard not to be moved by that sort of declaration; it was hard not to think he was in love. And Squall did love her... in his own way.

Yet Squall would kiss her and hold her and put up with the things she did that annoyed him, but... he didn't touch her the way lovers were supposed to. It wasn't the lack of sex that worried Rinoa; she fully intended on waiting for her wedding night before finally 'giving it up.' What worried her was that all of Squall's deep passion... never quite made it into their kisses, the way he touched her shoulder, or even the look in his eyes when he gazed at her. He loved her, but he wasn't in love with her.

Rinoa had never encountered a situation were loving someone was different from being in love with that person before and it was a bewildering concept to grasp. Yet as the days passed, weeks turning into months, Rinoa began to realize that she needed more from him than he was giving her. She loved him and, in the beginning, she'd hoped that things would change and that, the longer they were together, the more he would open up to her. War had sped up the process and peace had simply slowed him back to his normal speed. Except that wasn't the truth.

Rinoa had battered her way past his walls and into his heart, but someone had beaten her there and no one - not even Squall or the one who'd achieved it - seemed aware just who Squall's heart ultimately belonged to.

The saying went that if you loved someone, you had to let them go. If they loved you in return then they would return to you as surely as the sun returned to the sky each day.

It was time for Rinoa to let go.

"Squall, we need to talk."

He wouldn't be coming back to her.


	3. Seifer

Baker's Dozen - Seifer

Pairings - past-Rinoa/Squall, pre-Seifer/Squall

_**Unwell**_

This was probably the worst idea he'd had since following Sorceress Edea through the wall, down the rabbit hole, and into hell.

That wasn't to say that he'd done the wrong thing back then; it was either him or all of Garden, starting with Squall, Selphie, Zell, and Quistis, and Seifer was in a habit of cleaning up his own messes. As far as he was concerned, he'd had no choice but to follow the Sorceress for their sake. Unfortunately, trying to fix one screw up lead to the FUBAR to end all FUBARs. It was the story of his life, really.

For Seifer Almasy, it seemed as though good intentions really did pave the way to damnation. At least this time he wasn't in danger of being mind raped... again.

It started a few weeks ago when Rinoa left Garden. First, she broke up with Squall, but in a manner that somehow managed to leave them on fairly good terms. Only she was gone now, back in Timber running for office or something, and she didn't have to deal with Puberty Boy moping around Garden and generally being even more of a pain in the ass than usual.

Seifer did feel bad for the guy, though. The first breakup was painful, especially when you believed that the girl you were dating was 'the one.' So Seifer cut Squall some slack, used his reputation as Balamb Garden's greatest terror to scare away the twerps who thought that they could take Rinoa's place, and bribed the leader of the Trepies to have her fellow stalkers run interference when he couldn't. He'd figured it wouldn't take long for Squall to bounce back.

Except Squall didn't bounce back.

He kept up the moping and the jerkass attitude (which was Seifer's MO, not Squall's, thank you very much). Seifer couldn't take much more of it because, quite frankly, the girls he was supposed to be scaring off were starting to thank him for warning them to take a different route where their beloved, broody leader would not encounter them. The situation was getting _that bad._

In the past, the best way of snapping Squall out of a funk was to kick his ass in a spar. The only problem with that was Seifer had barely so much as picked up Hyperion since the end of the war, much less kept in practice. He still worked out, kept up with his unarmed self-defense, and would occasionally go through a few sword katas that were similar to gunblade routines. After the first few... incidents in the weeks immediately following the war's end, Fujin had told him, point-blank, that she'd strangle him if he even considered playing with Hyperion again.

However, Fujin was at an Estharian University at the moment and nearly a year had passed since the conclusion of the worst three months of Seifer's life. He'd thought that he could handle it.

So he challenged Squall to spar him, much to the general relief of Balamb's populace, who'd been wonder just why in Hyne's name Seifer hadn't done it sooner.

Taking slow, deep breaths, Seifer tried to calm down, pissed off at himself for what had just happened and knowing that Squall was likely freaked out. So much for helping Leonhart get his heartbreak out of his system.

"What the hell was that?"

Most definitely freaked out.

"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have challenged you, okay?"

"... You were having a flashback, weren't you?" Squall was kneeling in front of Seifer, his expression worried.

"Leonhart, I'm fine... just..." Seifer looked away. Oh, yeah, this had been so stupid of him.

"Seifer..." Squall put his hands on Seifer's shoulders. "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing. Just leave me alone." Seifer tried to jerk away, but he was shaking and freezing, his breathing still too close to hyperventilating for comfort. The memories were still too close to the surface - Hyperion in his hands, the Sorceress Ultimecia's voice screaming in his mind, twisting his thoughts, trying to make him into her plaything... her puppet...

Seifer's stomach churned as he tried to get the memories out of his head. He was too dizzy; he couldn't concentrate. His mind whirled with the painful recollections... his breathing picked up as he struggled to break out, but everything just seemed to make it worse.

"Hey, Seifer, just breathe, okay?" Squall's voice was soothing and Seifer latched on to the sound as his eyes squeezed shut. He felt Squall pull him close, arms wrapping around his shoulders. "Deep breaths, Seifer. Whatever you're remembering, it's not real. It's not happening."

"But _was _real." Seifer barely recognized his own voice, embarrassment flooding through him as he tried to get away again.

"I'm not gonna let you go, Seifer. Let me help you..."

He gave in, leaning into Squall's embrace. Maybe it was time to stop hiding from the things that frightened him. Seifer wanted to be himself again so badly.

Maybe trying to help Squall hadn't been such a bad idea after all.


	4. Raijin

Disclaimer - I don't own **FF8**. But I can build sandcastles on their beach.

A/N - This was written because a lot of people, including myself, underestimate the depth of character that can be found in Raijin. ^_^

Pairings - pre-Seifer/Squall, pre-Fujin/Raijin

_**Calculated Risk**_

Fujin was likely going to tear him limb from limb when she got back from the University and finally heard about what Raijin had let happen on his watch, but the results of his latest gamble were well worth the risk.

Contrary to popular thought, Raijin was not the 'brawn' of Seifer's posse. The posse didn't work like that, especially considering that if it did then Fujin would be the 'brain' in charge, not Seifer. Seifer was the leader because he was the one most suited to being in charge, but also because he was the one who had always given them unconditional support and causes worth fighting for... right up until he got involved from the Sorceress Ultimecia.

Raijin was the one who'd first realized that something was off about Seifer. He let Fujin make their plans as always, but he researched Sorceresses, learned about the penchant less honorable ones had for mind-controlling their minions, and laid out what he'd found for Fujin to base her decisions off of. During the war, she'd settled on the plan consisting of 'wait and see.' They had no known method of breaking the Sorceress' control over Seifer, but their best odds of learning how to help him hinged on sticking around and supporting him as best they could. Even if he wasn't himself, deep down Seifer had known that his posse was still trying to save him.

The odds had been stacked against them, growing worse every time Raijin recalculated, but they toughed it out as long as they could before handing the reigns over to Squall Leonhart and hoping for the best. Leonhart had the best track record when it came to denting Seifer's armor when even Fujin and Raijin failed. He was their last hope for saving Seifer from the Sorceress' control.

Technically speaking, their decision to trust in Leonhart was a success. Seifer was freed from the Sorceress' control, pardoned of his crimes by all governments involved in the war, and remanded into Balamb Garden's custody. Physically and legally, Seifer was in the clear.

The first time Seifer had a panic attack during the posse weapon's training, Raijin had realized just how monumentally they'd failed Seifer. Their inability to free Seifer the moment Raijin noticed something wrong had left Seifer with scars so deep that they lay upon his soul. Neither Fujin nor Raijin knew how to fix that sort of effect. They didn't know how to help Seifer.

They'd failed their friend.

Fujin responded by throwing herself into learning psychology. She took the courses offered at Garden and then jumped on an Estharian scholarship at one of their most prestigious universities. She had every intention of learning everything she could that might help her dearest friend: her brother.

Raijin, however, knew that he didn't have the skills necessary to be a healer of the mind. He was not a sensitive person; understanding emotions was not his strong point. It was ironic that Fujin, the calculating one, was better suited to psychology than Raijin, the emotive one, but also understandable. Numbers and facts were Raijin's favorite strongholds. There was nothing he enjoyed more than spending a day fishing while catching up on research for one thing or another.

Though Seifer hadn't experienced a flashback in almost three months, the moment Raijin heard that his hardheaded best friend had challenged Squall to a spar, Raijin knew that fighting with Leonhart would trigger a panic attack, one likely worse than the ones he'd already experienced. Since Rinoa left, Squall had been acting unusually moody and his likely reactions to dealing with evidence of Seifer's PTSD were unpredictable at best.

Raijin came close to forcing Seifer to call the whole damn thing off.

Yet... over the years, Seifer and Squall had become unnervingly attuned to one another. When Squall had a bad day, Seifer would act in such a manner that he became something of a human lightening rod, attracting the damage caused by Leonhart's temper so that no one else had to deal with it. When Seifer had a bad day, Squall would react in kind to draw Seifer's attention away from everyone else, posse included. Whenever one of them stressed over something and started skipping meals due to obsessing over whatever was wrong, the other would drag him to dinner or become an outlet for pent up frustration.

The odds weren't exactly great, but the best outcomes always seemed to require a certain amount of risk. Raijin held back and let events run their course. The increased closeness between Seifer and Squall after their sparring session spoke in the favor of Raijin's decision against interfering.

They'd needed Leonhart to rescue Seifer from the Sorceress. Perhaps they also needed Squall to save Seifer from himself.

Assuming events played out the way Raijin predicted then perhaps, once she was done ripping him apart, Fujin might give him a kiss on the cheek for letting Seifer find his own help. It was a calculated risk, but totally worth the gamble, ya know?

A/N - The more I write for **FF8**, the more I want to write for **FF8**. This fandom is addictive.


	5. Irvine

Baker's Dozen - Irvine

Pairings - Selphie/Irvine, post-Rinoa/Squall, pre-Seifer/Squall

_**Deception**_

Irvine did not like deceiving people. He hated lying and he was often told he had the worst poker face ever. So it might be considered a little ironic that he'd spent the Temporal Sorceress War lying to his dearest friends.

He'd started small, with a lie of omission. Irvine introduced himself to Squall, Selphie, Zell, and Quistis, letting all four believe that was the first time they'd ever met. It wasn't. They'd lived together for years; played together as children. The four of them plus Seifer were the most important people in his life and they'd forgotten him.

Worse, they didn't trust him.

Irvine didn't make things easier on them. Their lack of recognition stung and, without consciously choosing to do so, he lied again. This time with his actions as well as his words. Oh, Irvine was a flirt, but not womanizer. He knew how to get girls to giggle and smile for him, but actual dating was limited to two short relationships that he'd ended because those ladies just weren't what he was looking for... or who he was looking for, rather. He knew the moment he saw her again that Selphie was the only woman he'd ever love, but he let her think he was something he wasn't in retaliation for being forgotten. He wanted her to hurt a little too, even if she couldn't remember why his attitude hurt her.

Atop the carousel clock, however, Irvine told his first direct lie. He lied to Squall about why he couldn't shoot the Sorceress. He made up some bullshit about not wanting to affect history, or something along those lines, but the truth was that the Sorceress was Matron, the only real mother he'd ever known. How could he shoot her?

He couldn't.

Yet, for Squall, Irvine took the shot anyway and he felt a sick sort of relief when the bullet flared against Edea's shield. The mission was blown to hell, but at least Matron wasn't dead because of him.

Irvine doubted he could have lived with himself if his skills as a sharpshooter had killed Matron.

The lying didn't go away after that, however. He lied to Rinoa about her father ordering him to save her from D-District prison. General Carraway had been taken into custody - the old man was lucky to have survived the war, much less come out unharmed and on top of the Galbadian side of things - so Irvine forged the papers, having banked on the fact that communication lines in and out of Deling had been taken out of commission by the riots that broke out after the parade. Irvine had been acting on Squall's orders to protect Rinoa, which meant getting her out of harms way before trying to rescue the rest of his squad.

Rinoa, of course, had to do things her way, kick him down half a flight of steps, and then never thank him for getting her out of there. Irvine had always been a little ambivalent about Rinoa's relationship with Squall, though his inability to like her - though he never disliked her either - started there in the prison. The girl's concept of fairy tale romance seemed to fall along the lines of a Disney movie: two people falling in love in the span of a week or less... preferably at first sight. She just seemed too idealistic and naive for Squall, but Irvine kept quiet about that because he didn't want to cause problems with Squall. She was also still very much her father's spoiled little girl who only had a cursory understanding of when to use terms like 'please' and 'thank you.' After a lifetime of getting what she wanted when she wanted it, Rinoa didn't listen well when the word 'no' was used against her.

So Irvine lied through his actions again, feigning teasing acceptance of Rinoa's plans for Squall as Selphie orchestrated her surprise party celebrating Squall's promotion.

Irvine thought the lies would stop once everyone remembered the orphanage, except it didn't.

Squall took Rinoa, who was comatose, to the Estharian border without asking for help. Doing that pissed off Irvine to no end, but he curbed his anger and pretended to be amused instead. It was a lie; he wanted to shout at Squall, shake the gunblader's shoulders, and tell Squall just how stupid going off alone carrying a sleeping Galbadian princess was. They weren't partaking in a modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty and he was not guaranteed to survive the monsters he'd face just because he was Garden trained.

No, Irvine kept quiet. If his jaw clenched too tightly and his hands balled into fists, then... well, only Selphie noticed and she offered herself up as an outlet for his frustrations.

He told her he loved her instead because it was the most honest thing he could think of to say to her. Selphie's smile was the sort of thing dreams were made of.

After that, Irvine sort of lost track of his little lies. There were so many. He pretended to accept Squall and Rinoa's relationship. He pretended that Rinoa being a Sorceress didn't bother him; it did, because he didn't actually think Squall was her Knight and that meant she needed to stop wasting time. He pretended that the way the others constantly dismissed him for his status as being a cadet instead of a SeeD didn't rankle him. He pretended... he pretended a lot of things.

Only Selphie ever apologized for forgetting him and she never underestimated him. Irvine didn't know it was possible to fall in love with someone and then fall deeper in love until he realized that everything Selphie did made her ever more precious in his heart.

In the aftermath of the war, Irvine was made a high-level SeeD, no questions asked. He'd earned it... he'd more than earned it.

Unfortunately, the lies weren't ready to leave him alone. It was like an infection that had spread throughout his life and he didn't know how to stop it.

He lied about being comfortable with the way Ma Dincht mothered everyone. Irvine remembered Matron acting motherly towards him, but his adoptive parents had been far fonder of hitting. It took all his willpower not to flinch away from her hugs or snap at her when she tried to insist he have 'just one more helping' because he was 'as skinny as a fence pole.' They didn't often dine with Zell's Ma, but Irvine always came away from the Dincht residence feeling overwhelmed and twitchy on those few occasions when they did.

He pretended to be fine with the aftermath of the war, but at least here Selphie knew better. She knew of his nightmares of succeeding in killing Matron. She knew all his secrets, really.

After Rinoa left, Irvine went through the motions of being sorry she was gone. He honestly believed Squall's life would be a lot healthier once he got over her. Their relationship had quite a few qualities in common with obsession and less in common with true love.

Now, however, as Irvine warily watched Seifer and Squall interact, he wondered if he was going to have to lie again. The two gunbladers were undeniably connected, even more so since their most recent sparring session. Irvine hadn't noticed at first, he didn't have the knowledge of Balamb Garden's history to know just how much the two of them kept each other in check or how the rest of the population watched the two with bated breath, on occasions, just waiting for their latest fight to blow over. Eventually, though, he began to see just how deep the currents between the two really went.

A smile made it's way onto Irvine's face. He wouldn't need to lie about this after all. He approved and had every intention of being truthful about it.


	6. Quistis

Disclaimer - I don't own _FF8_. I don't make money off of _FF8_. I love _FF8_.

pairings - post-Rinoa/Squall, pre-Seifer/Squall, one-sided Quistis/Squall, one-sided Quistis/Seifer, Quistis/OC(female character), Selphie/Irvine, Zell/LibraryGirl

Beta Note from KitKatt0430 - Emcey has a bad cold and, according to her roommate, has turned into a grumpy, sleepy, snuffly creature who lives in a nest made out of a large number of pillows and fuzzy blankets. So, as a favor to Emcey, I'm updating for her.

_**Flattered**_

Quistis knew success well. She'd graduated at the age of fifteen, the youngest - brightest - SeeD to join the ranks. No one else had managed to match her achievement, though a few sixteen-year-olds had come close.

She'd also become the youngest - greenest - instructor in Garden. It only lasted a year, but she'd been beloved by her students and her class even had the highest written exam scores in three years. She also had the lowest pass rate on the final exam. Out of the four squads - twelve students total - from her class, only four passed into SeeD, one of whom had transferred into her class on the day of the exam and thus didn't really count for her tally.

Quistis knew failure just as well. She counted Seifer's failure as her own. Her class had been filled to the brim with Trepies; only Seifer, Fujin, Raijin, Squall, and Zell were not members of the fan club - stalker's anonymous society, really - and of them, Quistis had blatantly favored Squall. In doing so, she'd alienated Seifer, exacerbated his tendency towards acting out, and unintentionally sabotaged his chances of making SeeD. Knowing what she knew now, the domino effect she caused was obvious.

Seifer was in love with Squall, after all. Her attention to Squall, no matter how unrequited it was, had made Seifer unknowingly jealous and he'd reacted in anger.

Not that Quistis could credit her observational skills, which were nowhere near as sharp as she'd once believed, for the revelation concerning Seifer's feelings towards Garden's Commander. That was all on Selphie, who'd pointed out how chummy Seifer and Squall had been acting lately and how Seifer seemed to light up around Squall. The copper haired girl seemed overly pleased about the revelation, so Quistis had started paying attention only to find that Selphie was right. Seifer did light up - a grin that settled on his lips and reached his eyes instead the hollow, stretched mockery he'd been presenting for so long. Quistis hadn't even realized until then just how different Seifer had been since returning from the war.

Quistis also knew humiliation, though she was loathe to admit it. The worst example was, of course, that horrid evening when she was fired from her position of instructor and shot down by Squall. Looking back, Quistis cringed at the situation she'd placed Squall in; she'd known he was uninterested in her yet she'd ignored how uncomfortable her attention made him by placing her feelings ahead of his.

There were other, smaller humiliations that also rankled in her memories. Rinoa easily - almost effortlessly, really - breaking past the very walls in Squall's heart that had always kept Quistis out burned even now when Quistis finally understood the origin of her feelings for Squall. All the times when Seifer would tell her something in that blunt, cruel, honest way of his that always seemed to cut her to the bone and left her angry and defensive regardless of whether or not he was wrong. He was typically right.

Realizing Seifer's feelings for Squall brought on the familiar feeling of being humiliated; oh it was a quiet humiliation that only she was aware of, but it was there just the same.

Quistis had hoped that as everyone else began paring off, she would find someone for herself as well. In that first year, Squall and Rinoa's relationship had seemed to deepen, appearing to onlookers as though a fairy tale were unfolding before their eyes. At least, it seemed that way until the day Rinoa broke up with Squall and left for Timber. Irvine and Selphie had found a far more successful relationship that, though it lacked the ethereal quality of a fairy tale, was beautiful in it's own way. Even Zell was finally getting over his shyness, a year later, and declared his intention to ask the pretty librarian to the upcoming Spring Fling.

Seifer, however, had remained alone; he stood apart from everyone else and had developed a propensity for aloofness that Quistis had only ever seen in Squall before. His actions were understandable, however. Not everyone forgave him for the crimes committed during the war and many people, in the first few months after the war, would sooner spit at him than smile. Few of those sort of people were SeeDs or Cadets at Balamb Garden, but enough were that he'd retreated deeply into his posse. Quistis had wondered, in an idle sort of way, if what she needed to do was help Seifer overcome his fears by being the one to break through the barriers he'd set up around himself. It was silly, but she nearly made the same mistake with Seifer that she'd once made with Squall.

Sitting alone in a bar in Balamb, Quistis stared at the drink she'd ordered - some fruity cocktail that she couldn't really remember the name of - and finally took a long drink. It tasted of strawberries, but not strongly enough to mask the bitter flavor of the alcohol. Frowning, Quistis glanced over at the bartender. She should have gone with the guy's suggestion of a Long Island after all. The sour, lemony flavor went better with the alcohol and her mood.

"Someone so beautiful shouldn't be drinking alone," purred a woman's voice as a lithe body slipped onto the stool beside Quistis at the bar. "What brings you to this place, hun?"

"Oh, I just narrowly avoided making a fool of myself... again," Quistis told her, turning to look at the conversationalist. The speaker was a woman with deep crimson hair and vivid emerald eyes. Her face was heart-shaped and her smile tugged up slightly on the right, a dimple creasing her cheek in a manner that only seemed to add the woman's allure. Unlike Quistis, who was still in uniform from work, the woman was dressed for a night out in a silky looking forest green tank, a black skirt, and adorable black flats. Quistis felt drab in comparison. "I appreciate your compliment, but after a long day at work, I must look pretty washed out compared to you."

"More like unappreciated and gorgeous," the woman replied, winking flirtatiously. Quistis felt flustered and surprised; Balamb was a progressive city, but people who were bi, gay, or lesbian tended to avoid the 'straight' bars where some people might be offended by unwelcome advances from the same gender. "I'm here with a few friends, who are now trying to hook up with some undeserving males. I'm likely not your type, but I don't suppose you'd let me stick around and flatter you some more? I haven't had a chance to chat with someone as captivating as you in some time and I wouldn't mind fooling myself into thinking you're interested in a little long-term experimentation."

"What if I am interested?" the words slipped out before Quistis even knew what she was saying. She'd only had a sip of her drink so far so it wasn't as if she was drunk. This impulsiveness was so unlike her.

The woman's smile ratcheted up a few notches, causing Quistis' breath to catch in her throat. "I'm Sarah Clintock."

"Quistis Trepe."

"You've even got a beautiful name," Sarah said, signaling the bartender and pinning Quistis with a smoldering look.

Perhaps it was time to step back and let someone flatter her with attention instead of having it be solely the other way around. And, considering just how intoxicatingly beautiful Sarah was, Quistis was more than happy for Sarah to be the one doing the flattering.

"I think you've just made my day worth it, Sarah."


	7. Zell

Baker's Dozen - Zell

Pairings - past onesided Quistis/Squall, past Rinoa/Squall, Selphie/Irvine, onesided Zell/LibraryGirl, Quistis/OC, and pre-Seifer/Squall

_**Inopportune  
**_

Zell had long ago decided that he had the worst timing ever.

As a child, he'd repeatedly walked in on his parents making out. After remembering that his parents had adopted him, Zell had no doubt he'd walked in on Matron and Cid a few times too, though he never could recall doing so. It was a blessing, as far as he was concerned, seeing as he could all too clearly recall Ma and Pa Dincht lip-locked in the living room on more than a few occasions; he didn't need the additional mental scarring.

However, his parent's were not the only ones Zell had walked in on. He honestly thought it was some sort of curse; he couldn't manage to get a girlfriend of his own, but he'd witnessed just about everyone else experiencing romantic interludes. It just wasn't fair.

He'd walked in on various Trepies hooking up with other Trepies which wasn't so bad - most of the Trepies were women and he was a healthy, teenaged male. It wasn't until later, when Quistis was no longer Zell's instructor but his sister, that Zell began to get a little creeped out by the Trepies because odds were that they were imagining Quistis when they were kissing one of their fellow 'fangirls.' The idea that the two hot chicks he'd walked in on the other day were fantasizing about his sister as they really got into it... was understandably a bit disturbing.

Zell had walked in on Selphie and Irvine only once, which was even weirder than walking in on Trepies. After all, Zell considered Selphie his sister and Irvine his brother so... as long as they didn't consider one another siblings, which they obviously didn't, then it was fine. Zell just wished they'd start locking doors.

People kissing - or doing things just barely pg-13 instead of R - weren't the only things that Zell had been subjected to seeing. Sometimes it was an embarrassing moment, like when he tracked down Squall on the night of the Graduation Ball only to find Quistis pouring her heart out to him and all but professing her love for the obtuse brunet. Zell had known nearly all year that Quistis had an unrequited crush on Squall, but watching her set herself up for a fall had been... painful even back when he hadn't known she was his foster sibling. Fortunately neither of them had noticed him, or it could have been worse.

Sometimes it was a painful moment, like when he'd walked in on Squall comforting Rinoa after she'd been rescued from being frozen after being outed as a Sorceress. The raven haired girl had put on a brave front for everyone else, but alone with Squall she'd broken down sobbing. Squall had held her, a helpless expression on his face, unable to say anything. Squall hadn't known what words to use, not even the meaningless phrases of comfort other people would have used in his place, and he was visibly hurt over not knowing how to help.

Shocking events were fairly common things for Zell to happen upon as well. Accidentally overhearing Rinoa breaking up with Squall fell firmly into that category. She'd been gentle, telling him that they simply didn't feel the way they thought they did about one another; the fact that the Sorceress-Knight bond had yet to bind them together was proof. "We've never said 'I love you,' Squall, because our feelings just aren't that strong. We care for each other and love each other, even, but loving one another and being in love... I've come to understand the difference. I don't want to hurt you, but waiting would make this worse and... I have to find someone who can form the bond with me. I can already feel my magic growing more chaotic."

Suffice it to say, that was probably the most heartbreaking thing for Zell to have stumbled upon. He'd kind of figured that Squall and Rinoa were, well, forever.

Zell was startled when he walked in on Quistis making dinner for her date, a pretty redheaded woman who'd been respectably nervous at the impromptu introductions. Considering her previous crush on Squall, Zell had never considered that Quistis might be bi, despite the orientation of her fangirls. He'd been pleased, however. Quistis deserved to have someone who cared about her. Though, Zell had been a little envious of her happiness too. He'd asked out Marina, the pretty cadet who worked in the library and been shot down.

Marina, apparently, had a boyfriend in Dollet who she intended to marry once she'd graduated the academy without applying for SeeD. If only he'd asked a year earlier after the war had ended... though she'd have probably only said yes because of the fame he'd had at the time. Now, after everything had finally cooled off, only Squall, Seifer, Rinoa, and Edea's names were still in the spotlight.

The weirdest thing Zell had walked in on, though, had the appearance of being perfectly innocent. Zell had been giving a report to Squall and Seifer had been in the room, asleep on the couch. It was lunch time and Zell was ready to bounce out of the room but, for whatever reason, paused in the door to see if Squall and Seifer were coming along too. He didn't really care if Seifer came along - the two of them would never really be friends, but the dislike they'd once shared was mostly gone - and had watched in surprise as Squall sat on the edge of the couch, running his fingers idly through the blonde gunblader's hair.

Seifer instinctively leaned into Squall's touch without waking, mumbling something in his sleep that was, quite likely, Squall's name. The look on Squall's face... Squall looked like he'd just seen a rainbow or something equally beautiful for the first time. That particular combination of surprise, happiness, and awe was unmistakable. Zell got out of there before he could see anymore; whatever was going on between Seifer and Squall... Zell did not want to know just yet.

After all, Zell was pretty certain _they _hadn't figured it out anyway.


	8. Ellone

_**Wake Up Call**_

It wasn't any one thing Seifer said or did after the war. It was just everything taken together - the way he flinched away from Matron's touch for months and couldn't look Squall in eye for weeks and dozens of other little things - that really stuck with Ellone over time.

One day, Ellone just sort of realized that Ultimecia hadn't just been controlling Seifer; she'd been systematically destroying him. She raped his mind and turned his very thoughts against him. The lack of control must have been so very frightening for him.

The thought was a familiar one and it startled her to realize just why that was.

The first time Ellone saw Squall after the war, he asked her to never use her powers on him again. He told her that, though he knew she'd never purposely endanger him, that she'd used him so too many times without his permission that he needed her assurances that it wouldn't happen again. Ellone had instantly agreed, regretful that her actions must have scared him because he had no way of controlling the situations she'd thoughtlessly dropped him and the others into.

The parallel between her actions and those of the Sorceress' were unnerving. Ellone had never realized just how close she'd come to essentially raping the minds of her foster siblings. Oh, she'd managed not to cross the line, but it was a near thing indeed.

For the first time in her life, Ellone understood that being older than her siblings did not necessarily make her wiser...


	9. Fujin

Disclaimer - I don't own anything but the laptop I typed this on and I had to pay for that, so I'm really not making money here.

_**Dreams**_

Fujin was not one to give up, particularly not when the man she'd come to consider her brother was involved. She would fight and fight and fight...

Until finally she reached a line she could not cross.

Even then, for Seifer's sake, Fujin had continued to battle. She'd fought with words, desperate to reach past the Sorceress' control... desperate to make someone other than Raijin and herself aware that Seifer was captive within his own mind.

She'd fought against words, shutting down reporters and refusing to let the media near her damaged brother. She testified at his trial, denying the people who tried to make Seifer the war's scapegoat.

Worst of all, she'd fought tears upon realizing that there was part of Seifer that had been broken by Ultimecia... a part of her brother she might not be able to fix no matter how hard she fought.

Yet... there was someone else who could fix Seifer, it seemed.

Raijin's reports on Seifer were growing more promising. The blonde seemed to be improving under Squall's care. The two were growing inseparable and were even managing to spar for short periods of time without Seifer suffering flashbacks.

Fujin was starting to wonder if maybe Seifer wouldn't need her to help him after all. If maybe all the time she would need to spend at the university to finish her degree would simply be time she'd spent away from him, not time she'd spent finding a way to fix him. Maybe the place he needed her the most was back at Garden.

To her surprise, Fujin found she'd inadvertently approached another line she would not cross. She would not stop now, not even for her brother. Fujin had found something she loved learning, something that called to her and promised her a future.

Fujin had found her dreams. Seifer would understand.

A/N - I'm glad so many people like these little interconnected stories. Cid, Edea, Laguna, and Squall are the only ones I've got left before the story ends. I'm not sure how to write Cid's yet, so it might take a while for the next chapter to arrive. But if I get too frustrated with him I can move on to Edea or Laguna. I'm saving Squall for last. :)


	10. Cid

Disclaimer - I don't own _FF8_.

A/N - Cid Kramer's turn in the spotlight.

**_Rose Colored Hindsight_**

Cid was the first to admit he'd screwed up a lot over the years.

Making the deal with NORG, giving up so much of his control of Garden to the Shumi Guardians, agreeing to train the cadets with Guardian Forces instead of restricting their use to SeeD only...

In retrospect, the thing with the GFs was probably the most idiotic move he'd made out of all of them, which said a great deal considering some of the stupid things he'd done.

From the start, he'd known that GF were attributed with causing memory loss amongst the users, but Cid agreed anyway. He'd felt that destroying Ultimecia was worth any cost. What he hadn't understood was that the cost wasn't merely memories - it was experience too.

Seifer was the perfect example of the true cost Guardian Force usage could take on a person. Seifer learned through action best. He needed to gain experiences that would shape how he handled life instead of learning it by rote from books like Quistis or putting up with things he didn't have an opinion on the way Squall tended to. Seifer had to act things out and take the fall on occasion. He learned his lessons best that way... but with his memories continually being shortened from GF usage, Seifer's experiences would slip away to leave him back at the start.

Because of Cid's mistakes, Seifer kept learning the lesson of looking before he leaped into situations and then forgetting it despite its importance. Because of Cid, Seifer had practically been handed to Ultimecia on a platter.

Cid doubted he could ever forgive himself for failing Edea's boy like that.

There was a stupid saying about how hindsight was twenty-twenty... that a person could look back and know what they should have really done to get things right. Cid didn't know, however, what he could have changed. He regretted the deal with NORG, but the Shumi was the only investor Cid could find who was willing to back both the mercenary and academic parts of Garden. Every bad decision from there on out could be linked to his agreement to work with NORG. He wished there could have been some other way, but reality didn't typically work out the way he wished it would.

It was too bad hindsight couldn't be viewed through rose colored glasses. Maybe then Cid would be able to sleep through the night.


End file.
